You should have come.

It has been brought to my attention that maybe I should do a trip report
lest a bolt of lightning smite me where I sit. So to please the God here
goes:

I promised His Holiness that I would one day join him and The One True
Dive Babe on a Thanksgiving (American flavour) trip. And this was the
year I could make it. The trip was on the Nautilus Explorer driven by
Mike Lever and based out of Steveston(Vancouver), BC. I flew in on
Friday evening and took a cab from the airport to the Steveson dock. Not
having a clue where this dock was located, before I left I had printed
off a map supplied by the Nautilus people that had a little picture and
the instructions "Give to cab driver". With such detailed instructions
the cabby got me in the general area but we couldn't find the exact spot
so I followed the second part of the instructions "Look for the big
white boat". On the far side of all the fishing boats was something
resembling a small cruiseship. "That can't be it. It's f.cking huge" I
thought "but it's white so I'll check it out". I made my way down the
maze of fingers and jetties to this monstrous behemoth and sure enough,
it was the Nautilus Explorer. It is twice as big as anything I had been
on before and I was duly impressed. His Royal Godliness can sure
pick'em. (If you want to know more about it go to
www.nautilusexplorer.com.) It was unknown levels of niceness above
anything that I've been on before. The skiff itself was 38 f.cking feet
long and was stored on the back deck. I was truly gobsmacked (thanks to
my UK friends for that term) at the whole operation. A surprise for me
on boarding was seeing that Al Spilde, a legend in the Left Coast diving
community, was working this trip as Mike Lever's Number One. "Bonus" I
thought as I like Al a lot and had been on his boats quite a bit when he
owned the Sea Venturer and the Mamro.

The trip was for 3 days. We left dock early Saturday morning and had our
first dive around 10ish. Now I have only dove singles on one trip in the
past 5 years (Scapa/Shetlands) so I was a bit lost in regards to
weighting etc. Luckily the first dive was an easy reef so I could sort
things out. The first dive was at some place called Race Point near
Gabriola Island I think. The second dive was later in the day at
Breakwater Island, again off Gabriola. We overnighted at Silva Bay and
some of the divers went ashore to mingle with the locals at the pub. I
find the locals way too granola-y for my taste so I stayed on board and
talked to other guests and learned about the holy eggnog and bourbon. I
didn't partake of it but it piqued my interest enough so that when I got
home I stocked some up for the upcoming holiday season. Next day we dove
some place that I can't remember the name, and Dodd's Narrows. Good
dives. We overnighted on the north end of Gabriola and dove the wrecks
of the Saskatchewan and the Cape Breton off of Nanaimo. The Saskatchewan
is becoming a jewel of an artificial reef with tons of life growing on
it and the Cape Breton is quickly getting it's own coating of
invertebrates. I love those dives although it was weird doing them on
single tanks. I've been diving the Saskatchewan pretty much every year
since it went down and this was the first time I've dove it on a single
tank. It didn't make for a poorer dive though, just different. And of
course since I was scooterless  doing my usual 2-wrecks-in-one-dive was
out of the question as well. For the whole trip the viz was good west
coast (30-40') and temps weren't bad at the mid to low 40's. We saw
octopus and wolf eels and half the dives and the selection of sites for
variety was great.

After that it was the 3 hour steam back to Vancouver. One of the people
I had met on the trip was a woman that was living in Sausalito and has a
travel agency there called Reef & Rainforest that specializes in diving
and adventure trips (www.reefrainfrst.com). The woman's name is Jenny
Collister and during the trip I talked to her a lot because she grew up
here in Edmonton. On the way home I found out that her dad is Ron
Collister, a famous radio and newspaper guy here in Canada that I really
respected when he was active. Small world. Anyway if you want to do dive
and adventure travel call Jenny. She's first class.

Of course the highlight of the trip was diving with Our Lord Jammer and
TOTDB. We dove as a threesome and I don't think I could've asked for
better people to buddy up with. For all of you doubting Thomases out
there I can say that "Yes Jammer does dive" and "Yes he is as good as he
says". Ditto for TOTDB. Plus TOTDB brought an excellent assortment of
Jolly Ranchers. Amazing little candies those are. The taste just keeps
going, and going, and going... I think I like Watermelon the best but I
didn't get to try them all.

So it was a great trip and I hope to do it again some day. The Nautilus
Explorer is very nice, the crew is great, and diving with a God is an
experience I won't forget. I'm not too crazy on the single tank stuff
but it was nice change of pace to be on a dive trip that was all about
relaxing and having a good time, unlike my usual gigs. Hell I even dove
my Vyper as a computer. f.ck doing tables in my head. Strap on the
'puter, hit the water. No tables, no Decoplanner. Rec diving at his
finest. I didn't have to think. Makes me look forward to the diving I'll
do when I'm old.

(To HRH, Now that I've posted will you call off the plague of locusts?
They're freezing their little a.ses off up here)

Brian
Edmonton, Alberta
www.mossmanscubaventures.com